Andy Burnham demands ‘clean break from arrogant New Labour’

Andy Burnham has launched a scathing attack on New Labour, accusing the party of having become too far removed from its roots.

The shadow health secretary was seen as a loyal member of the New Labour cabinet before the general election defeat, but has revealed more left wing views since entering the party’s leadership race.

Andy Burnham believes he can restore Labour’s heart and soul (PA)

He used the final hustings before the leadership vote to call for Labour to rebuild its relationship with its core working class support and remove control from what he described as “the chattering classes on the London dinner party circuit”, reports the Manchester Evening News.

Mr Burnham told the audience at the event in Manchester he wanted to restore the party’s “heart and soul”.

“I want to break from the past of New Labour. It was too London-centric, too arrogant, too much about courting elites rather than fighting elites. We need a clean break,” he said.

The Leigh MP added that he does not believe the leadership contest has become a two-horse race between the Miliband brothers, despite the findings of a YouGov poll for the Sun suggesting that Mr Burnham, Diane Abbott and Ed Balls have little chance of succeeding Gordon Brown.

Responding to Mr Burnham’s well-received speech, David Miliband warned that the party needed to choose someone who could win votes across the whole country if it wanted to avoid being out of power for a long time.

Ed Miliband repeated his message that the parliamentary party had to begin listening to Labour members again, while Mr Balls suggested that history would regard Mr Brown as a “great leader of the Labour party”.

Ms Abbott, who has not served in the Cabinet, appealed to party members to choose a complete break from New Labour by voting for her.